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The Manti Te’o Hoaxer : A Case of Extreme In-the-Closetitis

Did you catch Dr. Phil’s two part interview with, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo who claims he’s the one who perpetrated the Manti Te’o hoax, posing for years as his virtual girlfriend? Not for fame, not for money, but, as Tuiasosopo admitted he, or I should say his fem alter ego, because loved the Norte Fame football star. The guy half assed confessed that he might be gay and blamed his fucked-up psyche on repeated childhood molestations by friends of his father who was a room away at the time they were committed.

O.K., I’ll give the guy some slack, though I don’t believe these molestation, in and of themselves, made him gay. Plus, all too often people use what I call the Marilyn Monroe Complex to explain why they’re fucked up. (Marilyn blamed her adult neuroses on her step-father who supposedly raped her). Hell, I’m not going to judge people like Tuiasosopo (“judge not, less you be judged”), but a lot of folks in these same circumstances say “fuck you” to their past transgressors by showing they can rise above them. Not let them defeat them.

But why create this elaborate female persona? Because, as Tuiasosopo claimed, he was treated like a woman by the guys who raped him beginning at 12? And why perpetuate this hoax? To use it, again as he said to Dr. Phil, as a way to “cleanse” himself of these horrible memories?

Even Dr. Phil’s bushy eyebrows went up when, asked why he in the end told Teo’o it was all a hoax, Tuiasosopo replied, “It was part of my recovery from homosexuality.”

Huh?! Think I, this is just another example of what happens when someone can’t face up to their own sexual reality. Hell, there’s a lot of us “in the closet” from family, friends and business associates for very legitimate practical reasons, but that doesn’t mean we deny what we want for ourselv es. But it’s another thing to bury your psyche so deep that you won’t even admit it to yourself, which leads to homo-hatred, obsessive stalking, drugs, alcohol, playing with little kids whose pube hairs aren’t in yet – or creating virtual personas on line.

As for Te’o, I still think he’s a jerk even if he knew nothing of the hoax. You’re carrying on an intense virtual romance with a woman over an extended period of time and you never once arrange to rendezvous in person or even, at least, skype? Huh?